Collins Bypasses Playgrounds For Prep Stardom

Two years ago, Moses Collins did his passing in the streets and playgrounds of Tallahassee, evading the rush of neighborhood buddies in worn sneakers and dirt-streaked jeans.

Most aspiring football players would have honed their talents on a junior-varsity team at their high school. Not Collins. He did his thing at Tank Field, a gritty patch of land across from where the neighborhood kids played.

At the urging of his playground peers, Collins finally went out for football in his junior year at Leon High School, where Coach Gene Cox has built a grand old tradition for throwing the football and developing quarterbacks.

Like most Leon students, Collins dutifully had attended the football games, cheering and admiring all-everything quarterback Tony Robinson and wishing he could achieve similar success. He was an awestruck freshman when Robinson earned All-America honors his senior year.

The list of Who's Who among Leon quarterbacks is as large as Larry Holmes' fist.

He joined the Leon team in 1983 and caught Cox's attention with his strong arm.

Senior Cy Williams was the quarterback that year, with Collins playing sparingly in the first half of the season. But in the fifth game, against Jacksonville Paxon, Collins played the fourth quarter. He completed all six passes he threw, three for TDs.

Collins remained the backup, but it was the making of a quarterback.

He threw 20 touchdown passes last fall in his senior season and signed a grant-in-aid to play for the University of Tennessee, where Robinson is the No. 1 quarterback.

At 8 p.m. Saturday he will be the quarterback when Florida plays Georgia at Orlando Stadium in the inaugural high school all-star game sponsored by the Florida Citrus Sports Association.

''I never had a dream I could play quarterback, let alone get a scholarship,'' Collins said. ''My parents didn't think I could. I didn't think I could. And now that I'm a quarterback and have a scholarship, I know anything is possible.''

At 6 feet 2 and 190 pounds, Collins has the physical potential to be a college quarterback. He also has a strong arm.

''He will flat throw the football,'' Cox said. ''I had no hesitation about picking him for this team.''

All the success hasn't made Collins' head swim.

''It makes you feel good to come out of a program where good quarterbacks are all successful after high school,'' Collins said. ''A great coach has something to do with that.''

And a great tradition.

''I didn't know Tony,'' Collins said. ''I was in the ninth grade when he was a senior. I didn't want to play, but I did want to watch him. He completed everything he threw.

''When I finally started to play, Coach Cox showed me films of him. And now we're going to be teammates. I feel like I've accomplished a lot in a little time.''

Looking back to those street games, Collins can't believe the difference in his confidence.

''I always liked watching football and playing, but I never thought I was good enough,'' he said. ''I didn't have the nerve to play.''